Word: carlson
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Carlson also has taken a lead in cost cutting, largely by reducing his orders for superjets. He trimmed United's orders for DC-10 jets from 30 to 22, and postponed delivery of some 747s. Savings: $160 million. "I'd rather be a lit tle behind in the equipment race than too soon," he says. He also pared payrolls 10%, eliminating 6,000 employees through attrition or layoff...
...Carlson is campaigning against "NETMA"-his acronym for the frequent executive complaint that "nobody ever tells me anything." By the end of the year, he will complete a reorganization of United into three operating centers, each with its own profit-and-loss statement. He hopes that this first decentralization in airline history will bring headquarters executives into closer and quicker touch with what is happening in the field. He cites a trip that he made to Florida, during which he found that United's ticketing and check-in facilities were grossly inadequate, and ordered them to be improved. "That...
Volunteer Baby-Sitter. To get that kind of information, Carlson, 60, a short and trim man, has been in constant motion. He prides himself on putting in only one day a week in Chicago, spending the rest of his time roaming the U.A.L. network from Honolulu to New York. He often turns up at United hangars and airport kitchens, shakes hands with startled baggagemen and quizzes stewardesses about flight service and their complaints. Riding coach recently on a U.A.L. flight, he voluntarily handed over $1.50 to a stewardess who had been worrying whether to charge him for a drink...
This personal interest by the boss has lifted U.A.L.'s morale despite the layoffs. Since Carlson took over, an employee-organized sales effort has brought in some $5,000,000 of revenue. In Chicago, a United janitor organized a charter flight to Los Angeles for his bowling group. A San Jose mechanic babysat for a neighbor flying on United to Hawaii...
...will not really be friendly for United until there is a general pickup in the economy. So far, passenger traffic is down 4% from 1970, and United may be reaching the limit of the benefits it can get from cost cutting. "You can't save yourself to prosperity," Carlson admits. But he has put the slimmed-down airline in position to earn a solid profit whenever traffic does climb again...